Summer vacation stuff

It has been a good vacation so far. Much of relaxing and some home improvements have taken place, as well as Sumarrós’s birthday celebration.

We tore the horrid carpet of the floor in the living room and put down new flooring. We also painted the living room and I almost feel like I moved without the packing and unpacking. It is so cozy and nice to hang out in it now that it is pretty much all we have been doing since we finished.

This is the blanket that got thrown out. It was old and absolutely disgusting.

Here is the new floor! We also rearranged the furniture and it looks much bigger now.

My daughters doing what they do best, being adorable.

Emma gets her hugs from Karítas.

Biking sisters.

Karítas finger knitting at Litla Prjónabúðin.

Sumarrós turned 15 (OMG!) on June 14th. She got a haircut and some highlights in her hair.

Off course we invited the family over for some homemade cakes and stuff.

After the birthday celebration, I got a manicure.

And so did the man.

I also finished my second seminar at school and got 8,8 out of 10 and was second highest of the 30+ people who were also studying at the same time. I am off school until the middle of August but I go back to work in about a week so I just know I will be super busy until school starts again. And then even busier after it starts. Oh well, it is only for a few months and brings great benefits for us and our future, so it is all worth it.

Karítas is leaving for The Czech Republic with her father and his family on Sunday and will not be back until August. Gah, it is going to be hard being without her for such a long time. She was there also last summer and had a BLAST and we spoke on Skype almost every single day, so I am just going to focus on how much fun she is having and enjoy it through her and her very lively stories and updates that I will be getting from her while she is away.

Bits & Pieces – May 19th

The weeks fly by. I just noticed that I am working this week and two days next week and then I will be on summer vacation until July 4th. My school is not over until June 14th though, but it is only about 15 hours a week and I can spend the days with my girls and have some fun. I then start school again in early August and don’t finish until December. That is going to be one busy season, both at work and at school so I should put my organizing skills to good use.

Karítas Árný made this bunny at school. I think it is just about the cutest thing ever!

New FM Belfast album on vinyl. So good!

I started working on the yoke of my lopapeysa on Saturday after school

And I finished it that evening and did the finishing on the sweater on Sunday.

I still have to go and find the right buttons for it (I am thinking about some old fashioned metal ones), steek it and crochet up and down the front of it. I can’t wait for it to be finished and I will share better photos of it when it is all done. The colors are not right in these shots.

Bits & Pieces – June 25th

Only 10 days until I start my summer vacation. Can.Not.Wait.
I do not have much planned other than relaxing and hopefully some camping trips. Sun has been out for some days lately, but now it is grey and raining again. I hope summer will turn out better than it has started. I need it after the boring winter we had.

I did a little yarnstorming on June 19th. It was 98 years ago that women over the age of 40 got the right to vote and the theme for the day was “Paint the City Pink”. So a little bit of pink yarn was used for decoration.

Girl Power!

Friday was lovely! White win on the balcony at the office with the sun shining.

One of the many cats that live on my street. This one is very friendly.

Hólavallakirkjugarður – The biggest cemetery since the 1800’s

Karítas left Monday morning for a 4 week vacation with her father and his GF. I miss her already, but I know she will have so much fun!

Bits & Pieces – May 19th

It just came to my attention, as I was typing in the header for this blogpost, that tomorrow is a holiday and I have the day off! OH THE JOY! I have been busy with the camera on my iPhone this past week, so here are some shots.

Monday morning, Emma is trying to wake me up way before I have to be up.

Monday after work. Happy Hour with my very good friends Sverrir, Lilja and Pálmi.

A quick stop at the yarnstore before going home from work. This is Storkurinn, located on Laugavegur.
And yes, that is Loft by Brooklyn Tweed you see hanging there. *drool*

Lunch outside with another good friend in the lovely weather.

Walk from Hverfisgata, between those houses there and enter on Laugavegur almost straight infront of my office.

New running socks from my man.They are awesome.

My nephew Adrían got to spend the night here last night. Here are him and Karítas in my bed trying to stop talking and fall asleep. That happened eventually, only for Adrían to wake up at 4something am and waking up both me and Karítas, refusing to go to bed again. So we watched cartoons in the living room while the rest of the family members slept.

Bits & Pieces

Can you believe April is almost over? No wonder I feel like I hardly have any time on my hands since time is escaping me faster than ever.
I had a busy week and a lovely weekend away with my mom and my daughters at my grandfathers cabin in Skorradalur. So here are some shots.

Sometimes on Mondays you just need a little pick me up. My co-worker made pop corn. It made my day!

Emma, posing.

I can’t get enough of this.

Blast from the past! Nintendo Game Boy – still works perfectly. I had a lot of fun with this over the weekend!

My daughters had a lot of fun in the hot tub and stayed there for the majority of the weekend. No matter if it was raining or snowing or if the sun was out.

I made great progress on the blanket I am working on for my little nephew!

Skessuhorn in Skorradalur, Iceland.

Bjössaróló in Borgarnes, Iceland. Built by a man out of material that was supposed to be thrown away anyway. He did it all by himself, started in 1979 and maintained it himself, continually adding to it until he was well into his seventies.

Me and my mom having a swing!

Bits & Pieces

Once again I have not been updating once a week. Easter came and went and the biological calendar and clock got messed up due to too much chocolate, good food and being way too lazy. I had a good Easter, I hope you did also.

I have started yet another blanket. Yes, I am fully aware that this is madness, but I like it. This one will be for my little nephew, Adrían. He absolutely loves the blanket I gave to my sister, his mother and takes it away from her all the time. So I decided he definitely needed one of his own.

Kitty cat getting some love.

This cabinet looked like this before. I was so tired of how boring it looked. I gave it a fresh color and a little make over. Love it now!

Prepping a little yarn graffiti with a stitching twist. Stay tuned for more.

Confetti! YAY!

My sister and her Love Bird. So sweet!

Spring morning skies are the best. The BEST!

I am in love with this scarf.

Alþingi – national parliament (the big stone building on the left. Austurvöllur is the small park across from it that is a very popular hang out on sunny summer days.

Kiddos and the cat Flóki.

Bits & Pieces

Hello! The weekend completely flew by me, so I did not update on Sunday like I try to do. My little sister turned 26 on Sunday so we had brunch at my parents house that was absolutely amazing.

Here are some photos for ya!

Winter decided to visit us here in Reykjavík for 2 days last week. It left as soon as it came. This has been the strangest winter I have ever experienced.

Every other Friday night, when the girls are home, we make pizza. Karítas loves to help out and puts the toppings on the pizza for her and her sister.

Karítas’s bed made with her wave blanket. I love it.

I started a crocheted sock! One down, one to go. Pictures to follow when I finish the second one.

My confirmation photo. This was 20 years ago, thank you very much!

And surprise! I have a stitching finish. I decided to start UFO Tuesdays back again at my Icelandic stitching group since most of us are doing much more knitting and/or crochet these days than stitching. So some of us are dedicating Tuesdays to working on our very neglected UFO’s. I finished this cute freebie from TraLaLa into a pincushion last night. Cute, isn’t it?

Bit(s) & a Piece

Crazy, crazy week just passed, faster than I ever thought possible. At least 12 hours of work per day. So the only photo since last week is this one, of my cat Emma. And me wishing I was a cat, care free and relaxed, when I was anything but.

More pictures next time, I promise!

Bits & Pieces

Sunday again! Another busy week, another Sunday. I have tomorrow and Tuesday off from work since the girls have winter break in their school. And since I still have some vacation days, I decided to enjoy some time off with them. We have nothing planned. Just the way I like it!

Here is my week in photos.

Funi, my friends dog came for a visit and took very good care of me. I love that dog!

The blanket is coming along. I now have two color sequences done and have started the third.

Did you watch Felix jump? Gah! It was so exciting. I was almost screaming here in my living room!

Best.dinner.ever.

Hallgrímskirkja during a walk in the middle of the evening.

With my back turned to the church the morning after, this is the view. Looking down Skólavörðustígur.

My mom took me out for dinner on Thursday. I ran into a friend of mine who is making these awesome scarfs and he put one around my neck. I love it!

Adorable cat visiting the store that I work for. It was cold so I guess the kitty just wanted to get warm.

I am back to working on Karítas’s blanket.

I want one! How amazing are his eyes? I will get a Ragdoll cat one of these days!

Preparing dinner for tonight. Marbella chicken. So good!

We found her! And, birthday!

Lísa is home, safe and sound!

She showed up at our old house late on Thursday night so I got a call to tell me she was there so I off course rushed to pick her up! We are all so very glad that she is home, happy, safe, unharmed! Thank you all so much for your thoughts and well wishes. I just got my internet at my new place today and was off from work all weekend so I could not inform you that she was here. Sorry about that!

But thanks again, we could not be happier.

Also, it is my older daughter, Sumarrós’s birthday today. Can you believe she is 11 years old? I bought her a desk and a chair for her new bedroom for her birthday and she has been organizing stuff in there ever since we got home today. I am sharing with you on of my favorite pictures of me and her. She is just over one years old there. This was taken in July 2000.

Happy birthday sweet girl. You have given me more than you can ever imagine.

Moved

Me and the girls have moved. We moved out of the place that we have lived in since I was pregnant with Karítas two days ago. While moving, our wonderful cat Lísa went missing. She has always been an indoors cat but managed to escape and we have not seen her since 😦 We are heartbroken and have been looking for her every single day. We have hung posters and called the animal shelter, the police, contacted all the vets in town etc. But as of yet there is no sign of her. Please hope with us that she returns home safe and sound! Even IF something happened to her, if she got hit by a car or something I would like to know, the uncertainty is really hard. Here is a recent picture of her.

So my address has changed and if you for any reason need my new one, you can e-mail me at litlaskvis@gmail.com

She is here!

She arrived this Saturday and she is just such a sweet little kitty! She is eating, sleeping, playing and all around acting like she has always been a member of our little family 🙂

We still haven’t decided on a name for her though. We are getting to know her a little and then we need to figure out a name for her.

Anyone remember me?

Oh it has been long. Way too long. Sorry I went MIA, but sometimes life just gets in the way of things. Everything is good though, I have just been really busy with, yeah, life. So it has been good and fun 🙂

I got an e-mail from Jennifer who won my bloggaversary draw telling me that she got the package that I sent her. You can see pictures of the goodies over at her blog.

I am however going to show you some detailed pictures of the first notebook that I finished and was a part of the gift to her. I am absolutely in love with how it turned out and it was very hard to give up, but Jennifer tells me that she loves it so I know it went to the right place. I am definitely going to be using this finishing technique more!

Pattern is from LHN’s The Rain Fell. I changed it a lot to fit my ideas.
Fabric: Lakeside Linens River Willow 32ct
Threads: CCC and DMC

I added some pearl buttons to the back and a small charm. I wanted the book to be simple and plain and I think I managed that. I also love that fabric, it is just so beautiful!

I have finished knitting my cape! I just sewed the buttons on today and wore it. It is just awesome! I will post pictures soon hopefully, I just need someone to come over and take pictures of me wearing it. I am sure that will happen soon. I have started another knitting project, a very simple scarf for a friend in Gryffindor colors. Oh, speaking of Harry Potter, have you seen the trailer for the new movie? I am oh so excited about it! Can’t wait!

Well. I am going to get comfy on my sofa and stitch a little. I haven’t been stitching at all really, and I need to finish up one thing that is a gift.

Oh, one more thing. Next Saturday we are getting a new member to our family.

We haven’t decided on a name yet, we need to get to know her a little first I think. I can’t wait, I really miss having a cat!